#he's not a dnd oc but rather a dungeon world oc

[pyjamacryptid]

Not to intrude on op's post but I literally drew my own antlered oc, Duirith, in mishaps like this.

Fun fact: this was my reason for giving him antlers in the first place, poor guy. Listen, I just couldn't stop giggling, utterly endeared, at the imagery.

horned ttrpg characters are fun in theory but realistically speaking they would get every cobweb and vine hanging from the dungeon ceiling tangled in their horns in minutes like a cat that went behind the sofa

[jewishdragon]

10 and 18 for the OC ask meme—your choice of character(s)

So im going to stick with Yonah and Sophia but throw in others as i see fit.

10. How would your OC do in the last book/movie/tv show/game/etc. you read/watched/played?

That's Dungeon Meshi!!!

Yonah would fucking thrive, cooking knowledge wise he's on Senshi's level. Skill wise he's got MAGIC and he's half giant so he's very solid and bulky. He'd be very knowledgeable about what can be eaten and how to prepare it, as well as in general decent at the dungeon crawling.

Sophia CANNOT COOK, so she's there for her other skills... or rather her curse. Being cursed to be indestructible glass means you can punch things real good, especially if its normally dangerous to get near/touch those things. I'm letting her keep her curse here since they are both fantasy worlds.

Yonah's got some adventuring friends namely Jake Silverman (who can touch magic items without taking any harm but alas cant use them without fusing the items to his person), and Avshi who is basically a wizard with some fighter and monk levels to use dnd terms (professional adventurer).

Shoshana Jaffe is a baking wizard but i dont think she'd enjoy dungeon crawling. She's actually a more skilled chef than Yonah but inherited her father's bakery so that's why i call her a baking wizard. She'd do FINE surviving in the dungeon she'd just not be having as good a time as Yonah, Sophia, Jake, and Avshi.

Sophia has a brother Yonatan who would NOT do good. He has too much anxiety and no survival skills.

18. Who would your OC play in Mario Kart?

Yonah would play bowser, sophia would play one of the mushroom people, shoshana would play daisy, jake would rotate through all the characters. Yonatan would use the most optimal character/vehicle combo. Avshi would be drybones!

[pillbug-in-a-jar]

ocs....

ough...

uerm...

I have. Sasha. she/him. (first pic is a silly redraw of art I saw featuring chilchuck from dungeon meshi)

sometimes referred to as "that gay bug". scientist, overly analytical, curious to a fault, evasive and sometimes rather sly. a lil Elias Bouchard coded (brutal Pipe Murder) + autism!!!!

uh. Pax, Minecraft OC for SMP I was in. intended to be an "artificial watcher" for some sorta cult... They/he/ve. skittish, curious to a fault, sometimes condescending towards people who don't know things they consider common knowledge. often forgets to convey opinions or say 'no' if they don't want to do something. They have a distrust of authority figures. always asking "why" and "how." has lost their powers of being able to see thingz easy and find things out so kinda lost and flailing around in the world. yearns for a sense of belonging among the other players, but at the same time they can't quite connect witblh them, as it is ingrained in them that those without knowledge are living a lesser life :( I only have picrews (edited) of them (+Minecraft skin), which is odd

Pebble... little kid. silly goofy etc!! Mouse guy, perpetually lost. loves insects

my dnd character Lou/Lois/Lewis.. runs(ran) an antiques shop. high middle age. I've only done one session so haven't figured out his character yet.

uh....... I've probably got more but they are a lot less developed.

heart!!! tghanks for ask.

[dionaearps]

hi, i’m joey (25, nb, he/they) and i’m looking for some new plots! rules and plot/fc ideas below the cut!

rules.

i rp on tumblr and discord. my strict cut off is 18+ for partners but i generally prefer partners over 21. i have a slight preference for playing girls or nb muses, but mostly because i prefer f/f ships. i’m down for any pair combination, with a big preference for queer ships.

my favourite genres are fantasy, supermatural, sci-fi, dark academia. i generally don’t like plots that are solely domestic, pregnancy/parenting, or celeb/fame rps. further info such as my trigger warnings can be found here.

plots.

period vampires! i don’t have much to say for this one bc there’s lots of directions we could go, i would rly love to play a jodie comer fc for this perhaps…, kind of like interview with a vampire/anne rice style vampires maybe?

i love anything to do with fae lore, esp the rly traditional stuff. also love anything from holly blacks’ fae verses. changeling plots are particuarly *chef’s kiss*.

i have a faulty android muse that i’d love to plot with in a setting based off cypberpunk 2077 (or the original 2020 ttrpg). based on this super old comic from tumblr where the android escapes half-broken from the corp that made them and breaks into a techies’ shop to fix themselves up

fantasy mumus in settings like the elder scrolls or dragon age or a generic ass fantasy settings where we could just make a bunch of ocs and stick ‘em together in a guild like in ur standard dungeons and dragons set up. i have a lot of dnd ocs. and a lot of them will never be used in games so??

something rly cutesy and farmcore with like stardew valley/animal crossing/harvest moon vibes plot where its all whimsical and rural and fervently anti-capitalist but has maybe some soft fantasy vibes (look i just rewatched the animal crossing film and im,, in love once again, bonus for older muses looking for a city escape). i also saw this post that mentioned a witch running a cat shelter like that it’s thats the ship. cat shelter witch x former corporate wage slave turned farm girl.

girl’s. boarding. schools. enough said. could either have a dark academia vibe with a murder mystery OR ghosts/cults/general spooky stuff (or both??).

have any of y’alll read angelology? nun and a cute academic team up to stop nephilim from destroying the world with gabriel’s lyre and then it turns out nun is a nephilim and academic is like actually, nope and suddenly they’re enemies? Love that

fandoms.

generally i prefer to play ocs in fandom settings, but there are a few canon ships i’d like to do.

elder scrolls

fallout

dragon age (leliana/josephine, leliana/warden, morrigan/warden, hawke/isabela, josephine/inquisitor, sera/inquisitor)

the witcher

borderlands

stardew valley

life is strange (chloe/max, chloe/rachel)

tithe

percy jackson

magnus archives

would love a bubbleline or catradora ship as well

faceclaims.

i prefer finding the right fc for the character rather than make plots based on fcs, but here are some i’m interested in:

hunter schafer, zendaya coleman, dev patel, lulu antariksa, chella man, reece king, gabriel darku, barbie feirrera, natasha liu bordizzo, amita suman, moon gayoung, aubrey joseph, danai gurira aron piper, seo kang joon, emmy rossum, maya hawke, kimiko glenn, sophie skelton, ryan potter, michael cimino, mj rodriguez, joe keery, jonathon daviss, lalisa manoban, tati gabrielle, rachel weisz, archie renaux, alilsha wainwright, indya moore, keiynan lonsdale, taron egerton, park chae wo, madison bailey, theo germaine, haley kiyoko, kit young, summer bishil, lana condor, viola davis, vanessa morgan, medalian rahimi, steven yuen, sofia byrant, liv hewson, lucy lui, jordan fisher, avan jogia, malese jow, doona bae, alberto rosende, arden cho, jodie cormer, rudy pankow, marlo kelly, tessa thompson, lyrica okano, lupita nyong'o, anya chalotra, naomi scott, neve campbell, erinn westbrook, brianne tju, ryan destiny, bryna marquezine, maisie williams, nick robinson, jessica parker kennedy, freddy carter, kaylee bryant, millie brady, bridgette lundy-paine, oscar isaac, sen mitsuji, im jinah, jessie mei li, lee pace, oliver jackson-cohan

[ravenwolfie97]

2020 Art Summary

Yep, it’s 2021 already. 2020 is finally over. It felt like it lasted forever, and it felt like the end would never come, but here we are. Crazy how the time flew by.

I felt like I didn’t get much art done this year because of Current World Event, but I made a lot more than I thought I did. Even some of my new favorite pieces came out of this year, so I think that’s worth celebrating and looking back upon!

I was insanely productive during the first month of 2020, and looking back I was surprised at all the stuff I did, but then I remembered that that winter season was actually one of the best times of my life! I started being more socially involved, and I think my newfound drive at the time translated into all the art I pumped out this month. This is just a small fraction of what I made in January, but I only have so much space. Quite a few complex pieces in both style exploration and polishing my own style.

Apparently February was a rather intimate month. Things began to slow down in terms of my own art here, with me spending more time in social settings and school work ramping up, I didn’t have as much time to coop up in my room to draw. I did wanna do something for a friend’s Valentine’s Day OC art challenge, so I drew my lovey-dovey couple from Dance of 1000 Words havin’ a dance. Nothing actually came of that challenge, but it was fun to do regardless.

One of the things I was most proud of in the winter season was making more friends, and one of the closest friends I made was completely coincidental. I met a person named Kiri on the bus one night I decided to volunteer somewhere by myself, and we ended up chatting and getting along. They quickly told me their tumblr username, and I shot them a message immediately after they left. A couple days later, we met up for brunch, and we started becoming really close friends and creative partners!

Not much else happened in March cuz that’s when Current World Event started becoming an issue, but Kiri and I still kept in close touch and we randomly started developing a concept for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Galar Edition. These are a handful of characters we thought up, with Skipper the Scorbunny and Dross the Dreepy as the main characters, Morgrem as the main antagonist, and some shopkeepers such as those of the Greedent Bank and the Indeedee General Store. This was also my first time drawing all of these Galar Pokemon (except Scorbunny, but I also made Skipper a bit more unique than a regular Scorbunny).

Lots of events happened this month. First of all, Steven Universe Future ended, one of my favorite and most influential shows was no longer continuing. I had to do something as tribute, both as a send-off to one of the greatest cartoons in the world and as a cathartic release for my feelings towards it.

A while later, I got the opportunity to start playing an MMO in beta called Fer.al, by the same people who made Animal Jam, which coincidentally I had also beta tested for back in the day. I ended up getting really attached to my first character, a Senri I named Sasha, and though I’ve made more characters than them since, they’re still my absolute favorite. Though I haven’t touched the game in a few months, I was really engrossed for a long time and enjoyed playing through the beta and early access phases.

At the end of the month, some friends of mine invited to a roleplay group with some mutuals, and we all played characters in a crime syndicate. Just a bunch of ragtag thieves and criminals who ended up together in order to protect an artifact called the Crown of Thieves, which was essentially a flag to be taken by other groups to prove that they are the best thieves in the land. My character was based heavily on my sona (if it wasn’t obvious) and was also influenced by Cloud Strife, since the FFVII Remake had just come out and I was super into watching the cutscenes at the time. My character’s (code)name is Valkyrie, and they are a mercenary, going between multiple different employers to carry out whatever duties they need to do. They have a more complicated backstory, but presently they were recently hired by recommendation of their friend Shark (played by @shmoots-universe​ who is also My friend now ily maya) who works with a group called the Court Cards who are currently in possession of the Crown of Thieves. Valk never really had a place to call home, but staying with this group of people had to be the closest they could get to that feeling. They still sleep with a knife under their pillow because of trust issue but that’s okay.

Okay, so technically these examples started in April, but I continued making content with them in May, and the month was just pretty void of art in general, so here I am addressing them.

There were two main things I worked on this month: a Steven Universe AU of my own and the whole #sixfanarts thing that kicked off around then. Let’s start with the fanart bits. I did two and a half of them (six in April and nine in May), and it was so much fun to be able to draw stuff I don’t normally do! My personal favorites are shown here: Blake Belladonna from RWBY, Roll from Megaman, Yuki Konno from Sword Art Online, and Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The other thing I’d been planning for a while was a Steven Universe AU, probably to cope with the show being over but also because I was inspired by a lot of those SU AU artists I started following at the time. I won’t share the details here because it’s gonna have its own blog at some point, but the example I’ve shown here is of a comic I made loosely in order to introduce a divergence in the plot of the story as well as introduce a character unique to my AU. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to draw the characters and get a feel for the style.

As the year progressed, my amount of art I made per month began to dwindle, this time mostly because school was kicking my ass especially hard with finals. However, I took what time I had to get some backburner pieces finished, like the Tigerlily picture which I sketched out a couple months back, and the Gunvolt picture which I started working on SIX YEARS AGO. I don’t quite know why I got the urge to work on it again after so long, but it was nice to finally realize. The other drawing for DOTS was done in the dead of night but I was really happy with how it came out.

Despite only having two summer classes left of school, this month was really rough because they demanded a lot of my time and attention. I did not have the gumption to do anything digital, so I stuck to my sketchbook to get out what I felt like getting out.

My friends and I did a stream of the game Helltaker, and I really enjoyed the concept, so in following my friends I made my own Helltaker demon OC named Raksha the Ravenous Demon (it’s a pun but also got mythical insp). I also got super into Hazbin Hotel at this point, mostly because the Addict music video dropped and I couldn’t get enough of it, so I doodled Angel Dust cuz I felt like it. The other drawing I did was actually a free commission I gave a friend of mine as a prize for a trivia game show I ran back in June. He along with a couple other friends got some free drawings from me for getting the top three scores, and this one in particular was fun because of how interesting it was. He wanted me to draw a video game reviewer called the Irate Gamer from a specific moment, and I decided to go ham and just make it as dramatic as possible.

University classes finally wrapped up and right after that I was in the process of moving out of my apartment and getting adjusted to living with my parents again. I did a couple of agg.io drawing sessions with my friends from the Court Cards group as well as a new Dungeons and Dragons homebrew group I had joined. I drew some more of Valkyrie and came up with a design for my DND character Qakuqtuq (or Kai for short). He is monkey grandpa and I love him.

My main focus was on finishing a polished piece for my friend Cake, whose birthday was in the upcoming month. I wanted it to be as amazing as possible, so I put a lot of time into getting more detailed and making them look good. In addition to that, I did a few TOME doodles just for fun. The creature on the bottom was for this month’s art challenge on my Discord server where we made original TOMERPG monsters, and I created Hundylow, a Crystal-element monster based on the Grindylow from English folklore.

This month was a lot more productive than the past few had been. I tried to do a 31-day art challenge called Creatober but failed to get past the third prompt because I was still swamped with other work. I’m still happy with what little I did, including the piece with my characters Kyle and Guarudan from DSWD.

I don’t remember how, but I also suddenly rediscovered an old Flipnote Hatena series called Tales of LostClan, a Warriors fan series that I would say was the most obscure thing I’ve ever been super invested in. It was what got me into the actual Warriors books, and I liked it so much I redrew the animations into a comic... twice. Didn’t get nearly as far the second time but clearly my love for this little fanfiction had not waned after nearly a decade. I felt like drawing a book cover/movie poster for the series, just to get it out there and see how much I’ve improved over all that time.

Also I felt like making a vampiresona just before Halloween because I never dress up for Halloween in art (or real life anymore, for that matter), and I wanted to do something like that for once. It was short-lived but I really liked the design!

The focus of this month was definitely on Pokemon stuff. As per usual I contributed to the current Gotta Draw ‘Em All collab, and I was tasked to draw Regieleki. It was really fun to figure out how to make it stand out and look like it was made of electricity.

I also committed a lot of my spare time to my Fakemon Gym Leaders, as I had been working on bringing them to life in the past year or so now. As of this post, I’ve finished rendering their full body poses and gym badges, but I’m still working on completing all eight VS portraits, the first half of which are shown here.

I... didn’t draw anything this month, actually. What I’m showing here was worked on in the last few days but has actually been in progress for a couple of months, and I just finished it earlier today, in 2021. But I needed to show something off, and it’s also about time I mentioned it.

Back in October, I kept seeing people rave about this game called Genshin Impact, and I was interested but not so much as to start playing it... until my friends started playing and I was like “fuck it, let’s download it”. Since that day, I have been super immersed and in love with this game, to the point I came up with my own canon based on my gameplay experiences. This also included the creation of an original player character: Astra, the non-binary Traveller. And now, I’ve finally drawn them and brought them to life.

It has been one hell of a year. I had some of the highest highs and lowest lows in 2020, lots of changes, and I have now officially moved onto the next chapter of my life now that my time at university is finally over. I’m very excited for what 2021 has to offer, and I’m going to go forward with great ambition.

[bubblyernie]

How does one get into dungeons and dragons. I'm not really understanding the game and don't even know how to play

This is kinda long, but ill do my best to break it down to the basics so you can understand easily!! important things are bolded, and i have only played ONE homebrew game and watched a lot of critrole, so my knowledge is limited. This is for 5th edition dnd btw, i don't know anything about other versions

that’s a-ok!!! it’s very daunting at first but once you get the basic gist of it, it’ll be a lot of fun! I recommend a way to start is listening/watching a show like TAZ/Dimension 20/Critical Role if you’re more into the fandom rather than gameplay. Critical Role is a really big one, and they’re also on a very professional scale so that might be hard to get into, but they have smaller things like one-shots (one session stories) which are much easier to take in lol. TAZ is a little more chill with it (im on episode 3 of TAZ Balance) and they’re kinda learning as they go as well, so it’s great for people who don’t really know how to play yet! Haven’t watched dimension 20, but i heard its good, and its hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan and he’s super funny!

DnD really simple at its core, you don’t even need to follow the rule book bc it’s a really versatile game (most common setting is fantasy-medieval but people do sci-fi, western, underwater, space etc). You do need at least one other person to be your game master (dungeon master in most cases), they’re the one who crafts the story and the world for you and makes up NPCs, while you get to be a character you either make or they make for you! 

Once you have a campaign going (either a 1-1 session with the game master or with some friends), you have to make a character, which is usually the most confusing part! You’ll need at least one six-sided die, online or in person. I won’t go into detail on how you use that, it’s a lot of explaining, but either search it up or dm me if you want a walkthrough on character sheets. So with different creature races (you can be a human if you’d like!), backgrounds (basically what you worked as before the story starts) and “roles” called classes, you get different stats (called ability-modifiers and skills). There’s basically a bunch of skills with 6 main ability-modifiers, which determine how well you can fight stuff, how flexible you are and if you’re smart etc.etc. and every time you make a decision, the game master will tell you to roll a 20 sided die (called a d20. Other dice are D(number of sides) and are used for other attacks/healing points etc.) with your stats and calculate how well you pull off the action! This includes things like swinging a sword, investigating things, trying to sneak around, seducing your local tavern maid etc. You might be “proficient” in something, which gives you added bonuses to your roll and means that because of your background/class/race, you’re just a little better at that thing than most people are! (ex: An cleric, basically a priest-doctor, will likely be proficient with anything related to medicine. A soldier will also probably be proficient in using swords. The rule book has some pre-set ones for you, but you can change that to suit your character better, just talk to your game master before doing so!). Last, your character will have certain traits, stuff like being able to see in the dark, resistance against fire damage, stuff like that. 

that’s the basics of it, you can also do things with weapons, magic etc. depending on your class, which all have their own stats. You can keep track of it on a character sheet which you can find by just googling it lol. Your game master might also give you certain bonuses (”Advantage”) or penalties (”Disadvantage”) based on your situation where you can roll twice and take the higher or lower, depending on your situation. It’s really fun, you can play it as gruesome, lighthearted or absolutely batshit as you want, the end of the day, you’re going on an adventure! I actually like filling up character sheets very much, its a fun way to keep track of OCs, so dm me if you want me to give you a hand!

[cupcakesmuses]

Muses [this blog]

[Note - I ship based on chemistry. Feel free to tag me in something or jump on an open thread or message me to plot something.]

Quick List (full descriptions further down, below the cut)

DND ocs

Gem Stardust - halfing bard, chaotic fun loving gal, deeply insecure

Lydia Sol - elf rogue, snarky woman who’d rather be anywhere but here, not a fan of magic

Timon - teifling cleric, trickster type with a begrudgingly empathetic side

Perrin Wildheart - human wild mage/paladin, good pure boy with deep dark past

Alastaire Kol’Ethar - elf bard, a charming loyal prince, complete disaster

Jack - half elf druid, a good mannered orphan boy, just wants to lend a hand

Doctor Who

Steven Taylor [First Doctor era] - headstrong 24th century pilot

Leela [Fourth Doctor era] - curious tribal woman from the future

Turlough [Fifth Doctor era] - snarky school boy alien

Malkon [Fifth Doctor era] - Turlough’s brother, mild snark, depressed deposed leader

Elton Pope [Tenth Doctor era] - dreamy mild mannered blogger

Amy Pond [Eleventh Doctor era] - ambitious model/writer/adventurer

Rory Williams [Eleventh Doctor era] - Amy’s husband, loyal nurse, secret warrior

Anthony Williams - Rory and Amy’s adopted son, empathetic, daydreaming writer/musician/playwright

Dan Lewis [Thirteenth Doctor era] - Just your average Scouse with a heart of gold.

Nineteenth Doctor - grumpy, loner, particular and finally a ginger

Misc (by request or whim)

Archie Hopper - Once Upon A Time

The Wizard - Wicked

Steve Harrington - Stranger Things

Sylvester Pemberton - Stargirl

Graydon Hastur - Willow

Full descriptions for DND ocs and Doctor Who muses below

Dungeons and Dragons

Gem Stardust - halfling bard with a criminal background. Gem is all flash. She charms, she sings, she plays piano when afforded and the lute on the road. She cons, she steals. She talks a big game, flirts with everyone. She’s deeply insecure, never seen without her outrageous clothes or makeup. She came from a good home with good loving adopted parents. Gem Stardust isn’t even her real name. [FC/voice Cyndi Lauper]

Lydia Sol - elf rouge. Having grown up in a magical expectant house hold where every family member for generations (including her adopted sister) held magical or divine powers, Lydia has none. Her parents encouraged her, but she never believed she was cut out for it, watching her sister flourish easily in healing magic, while she struggled for the simplest of cantrips. Eventually she left home, much to her family’s dismay, fell in with a team of party gnomes and found her real calling of thievery. [FC/voice Stephanie Beatriz]

Timon - teifling cleric, Way of the Trickster, follower of Avandra, The Changebringer. A sly talker with sticky fingers and oh, maybe he’ll heal you if you really insist, Timon likes to keep things on the surface. Sure, you can be friends. Sure, he’ll lend you a gold or two, despite his usual insistence he is flat broke. He keeps his cards close to his chest, he laughs off way more than he should. But maybe if people really got to know him, they wouldn’t like him after all... [copper skin tone, black eyes, FC/voice Alan Tudyk]

Perrin Wildheart - human sorcerer/paladin, Wild Magic/Oath of Redemption. Hoping to run and redeem himself from a tragic past, Perrin’s life journey is to do good deeds, help those in need, and seek justice. Born female into a cult to Nuitari, a god of evil magic, "Hester” was raised to be the perfect daughter, shy and quiet, dutiful and subservient, beautiful and graceful and betrothed to the Elder Priest’s son. When he began questioning his identity, the traditions of the town, the smallness of their world, as a teen, the elders took notice. As did his friends. His parents did not understand why their daughter was so suddenly divisive and did not stop the Elder Priest when he decided to curse and outcast their child. Perrin was ritually cursed with Wild Magic, distorting his natural magical talent. Five of his friends escaped that very night, forming his first companions, one of whom was his betrothed, Ris. They struggled to find their way, none of them literate, all of them incredibly sheltered, but eventually sought to help the nearby town, banding as fighters and magic users. They fought together, aiding an old wizard-paladin in finding his lost grand-daughter and granting Perrin’s wish to transition into a human male form. Shortly after, the group were badly beaten by a frost giant and in attempting to help heal Ris, his wild magic worked against him, firing magic missals into Ris’ injured body and killing him horrifically. As the party buried what was left of Ris’ body while Perrin cleaned up near a river, he quietly packed his things and never looked back, unable to face them. He prefers to travel alone, but knows it is smarter to work in numbers and is still desperate for friendship and connection however afraid he is that he might have to abandon them suddenly. He strives to be a bright light, if short in someone’s life and perhaps that’s for the best. [FC/voice Brandon Routh]

Alastaire Kol’ethar - Elf bard, College of Whispers. Second in line to the throne, of a small secluded kingdom in Neverwinter, Alastaire’s job was to protect his elder brother as spy master. He excels in charm, deceit, and taking care of threats to the kingdom... He was once engaged to his childhood friend Eileen, but drew the ire of another nobleman who fell for her and thought Alastaire did not take their engagement seriously enough. One day Alastaire found himself displaced from his kingdom, originally believing it was the side effects of a night of heavy drinking, thought little of it. Until he could not find one person who knew of Neverwinter. Now, believing himself to be cursed, either by the man lusting for Eileen or some other threat to the kingdom, Alastaire finds himself continuously popping in and out of dimensions and foreign lands. His only companion is his magical sentient flaming rapier, Onrique. Having not set foot in Neverwinter in 3 years, he’s quickly loosing faith of returning, but determined to do so with his increasing nightmares of his brother’s peril. He has become a gambling addict and hoarder since his magical displacements. [FC/voice Himesh Patel]

Jack - (WIP) Half elf druid who grew up in a prison camp, learning from the soldiers who liked having him around. He had a affinity for nature and healing and his little heart loved nothing better than to help the people who were hurting (which was always in supply). Once the camp was liberated, Jack found work for himself in a temple of the Wildmother, trying to focus on healing. Now he lends himself out to those in need, mostly living a nomadic life trying to help people along the way. [FC/voice Lin Manuel Miranda]

Doctor Who

Turlough - [5th Doctor era] Originally from the planet Trion and on the wrong side of the civil war, Turlough was exiled to Earth, forced to live as a school boy in England. Alienated, angry, and resentful, Turlough took desperate action, making a deal with an unknown entity in order to free himself from Earth. All he had to do was kill The Doctor. Eventually, befriending the Doctor and seeing the man was a force for good, and certain a better man than he, Turlough rejected the Black Guardian’s deal. He traveled with the Doctor, his sharp edges softening some, before discovering his lost brother and deciding to go home. [FC Mark Strickson - TARDIS.WIKI entry]

Malkon - [5th Doctor era] Turlough’s baby brother, however thanks to time travel, is nearly Turlough’s own age. Found alive in his father crashed ship on the planet Sarn, Malkon was raised believing he was the product of prophecy and leader of the people of Sarn. Because of the branding given to exiled Trions, they called him The Chosen One. When the Master came to his planet, disrupting order, the Doctor tried to help. Over the course of attempting to save the planet from it’s own destruction, Turlough realized Malkon was his younger brother and Malkon nearly died at the hands of the Master. Living with Turlough back on Trion, Malkon struggles to fit in, coping with his entire life having been a lie. [FC Edward Highmore - TARDIS.WIKI entry]

Elton Pope - [10th Doctor Era] Elton’s first encounter with the Doctor was as a child and knowing his mother was gone and never coming back. Elton’s father struggled to raise him up right after Linda’s death as a single working dad, constantly worried over his boy who was too sensitive and none too bright. Paul Pope died of a massive heart attack when Elton was 16 and Elton promptly dropped out of school and worked as a warehouse loader and an odd job mechanic. He lived with his aunt for a time before moving out on his own and meeting Ursula after another odd encounter with the mysterious man and his blue box. Several other people, along with Ursula formed a support group of sorts, beginning as a meeting for others who had  believed something strange about this out of place Police Box. He befriended Jackie Tyler, originally with the arterial motive of learning about her daughter being seen with the Doctor. Eventually, as when one encounters the Doctor, an alien infiltrated the group killing every member except Elton only by the skin of his teeth. The Doctor managed to sort of save Ursula as well, though she did not survive for as long as they all, perhaps, thought she might as a slab of concrete. Elton continues his normal life, looking out for the blue box. [FC Marc Warren - TARDIS.WIKI entry]

Steven Taylor - [1st Doctor era] A space pilot in Earth’s 28th century, Steven was shot down over the planet Mechanus and held captive for two years, with only a small panda stuffed animal HiFi for company. Brave, adventurous and moral, Steven spent his time with the Doctor looking out to protect the old man and their younger companion Viki. After Viki stayed in ancient Greece for love, and taking Katarina along, who believed the Doctor to be Zeus himself, they encountered Sara Kingdom. Katarina died, and so would Sara, Steven growing quiet attached to the jaded woman in the weeks known. Another fatal adventure, Steven befriended Anne Chaplet, who possibly killed and the Doctor’s refusal to help stop the deadly fires, Steven decided to leave the Doctor, only to be stopped by a young woman that was possible proof Anne had lived. He traveled with the Doctor and Dodo, until landing on a planet divided by civil war. Hoping to help and make a real change, Steven barely protested when the Doctor suggested Steven stay and rule as king. [FC Peter Purves - TARDIS.WIKI entry]

Rory Williams - [11th Doctor era] A nurse in 21st century England, Rory knew all about The Doctor, sort of, by the time he was 10, listening to Amelia Pond’s wild tales of the Raggedy Doctor. Even letting her dress him up as him. He lived most of his life chasing after Amy Pond, hoping she might notice him, knowing he was madly in love with her. His home life growing up wasn’t terrible, Brian Williams loved his son, however didn’t much appreciate his interests as much as he should have. Agatha Williams missed the after school run when Rory was 12, moved to Leeds, and hardly reached out to her son since. Beset with disinterested parents, Rory felt the call to help from an early age. Traveling with the Doctor provided several lifetimes of service, in different ways, some of which are hard pressed to speak of. The Lone Centurion is a forgotten legend to the world, but Rory remembers far more than he lets on. The terrible kidnapping of their newborn daughter, only to have her standing in front of them to tell them who she was. He loves River, of course, but has a slightly more difficult time connecting with her than Amy seems to. A final battle with the Weeping Angels sent him and Amy back to 1938 New York, unable to see the Doctor again. Amy and Rory adopted an infant son, Anthony, in 1946, and Rory took advantage of the three year fast track medical program (with the shortage of Doctors in WW2) and became a doctor. It might not have been the General Practitioner in Upper Leadworth dream he originally imagined, but with a bright son and a world/time traveling daughter who did remember to visit her parents every once and a while, he was happy enough. [FC Arthur Darvill - TARDIS.WIKI Entry]

Amy Pond - [11th Doctor Era] Amelia Pond used to dream of a man in a big blue box, the wheezing sound it made, the raggedy clothes of The Doctor who promised to help her... and then disappeared. Psychiatrists or not she knew she was right, he was out there. She studied history, fascinated with real life heroes and amazing events. Adventure. She wanted it badly. And one day he came back, sweeping her off on many. Her and her husband, Rory. Being with the Doctor was hardly boring, and in no way safe. She lost her husband, more times than she would care to remember. She once spent 2000 years unconscious in a box while he waited outside of it for her, protecting her. She lost her daughter, only to discover Melody had been beside her all along: Mels, River. Her little girl stolen away from her. Horribly traumatized from the events of her capture and Melody’s birth, Amy started pushing Rory away from her once back home in London. It worked, Rory signing divorce papers neither of them wanted or ever dreamed they would see. Luckily, the Doctor saved the day once more. But in the end, even the Doctor couldn’t save them from the Weeping Angels. Amy chose Rory over the Doctor, something she knew she would eventually end up doing, something Rory had once feared she wouldn’t do. In 1930s New York, she managed the odd retail or secretary job before becoming a published author. After World War 2, they adopted a baby boy, Anthony, who would become her grandest adventure yet. Her new field became children’s books, for her son, who might only know the Doctor though his parent’s stories, and for every child who dreamed of adventure. [FC Karen Gillan]

Anthony Williams - [1960s thru 2000s New York] Adopted in 1946 by Amy and Rory Williams, Anthony had a very happy childhood with devoted, imaginative parents. When he was 13, his parents thought he was old enough to know, and clever enough not to boast, that every far fetched bed time story of the ‘mad man in the box’ and the ‘time traveling archeologist’ was true. During his last visit from his sister, River gave him a time vortex manipulator for his birthday. He struggled with his sexual identity in the ‘free love’ period but came out to his parents as bisexual, knowing they would be open and encouraging. He became a writer like his mother, but eventually fell in love with theater... and then with an actor he met through rehearsals with his first play. He would win a Tony in the early nineties for a musical of a fantastical story of the Lone Centurion and the Girl in the Box. [FC Oscar Isaac, older FC Al Pacino]

The 19th Doctor - Finally... a ginger. He’d traveled alone for too long, often settling in one era or another for a short period of time. Attempting to ‘slow down’ and take the time to enjoy things he missed fretting about to one time and planet to the next. He’s more contemplative, far more grumpy, quick to temper and hard pressed to keep much company at all. But he’s still the Doctor... and he can’t help himself but want to do good when he’d needed. [FC Samuel West]

[bookwyrm214]

Where in the World is Bookwyrm214? (8/18 Progress Report)

I got through typing the first 688 words of Rhapsody in Reverie chapter 16: Caught in a Landslide today, and I wanted to let y’all know what’s going on in Book-land, since I know it's been over two weeks since my last fic update.

Rest assured, now that I’ve started the typing phase for 16 it’ll be fully typed tonight, beta-read ASAP, and hopefully posted tomorrow. If all goes according to plan, 17 won’t be too far behind, and 18 will be up on Sunday according to the original schedule.

I’m going to try and put the rest of this under a read more bc it’s pretty long, but this is what’s up with my life and my planned content moving forward!

I’ve been working through the stress of going back to long distance with the honeybee (he moved back to college last week), my job finished off for the season last Friday (I spent the afternoon sleeping the length of a shift), I was dungeon master for about half of Friday’s session (though I gave the reigns back to the honeybee pretty quick, I have the writing part down, but the execution isn’t there yet), I played for myself and a friend who couldn’t make it in my Saturday dnd session and helped my other friend through her first session, gave my best friend shit about cancelling his Sunday dnd session to prep for his not-yet-girlfriend to visit while being supportive and encouraging about meeting her, and prepping to move back to college myself at the end of the month.

I’ve been trying to get used to the new laptop’s keyboard, which is a big one for why ch16 is so late. I had to finish transferring everything to my new laptop so my little sister could use the old one for online elementary school, which was a bear to do and tool for-flipping-ever (I ended up having to get an external hard drive for my photos, since I’m really bad about deleting the blurry ones after birding trips and they wouldn’t fit on my flash drives to move them off)

I have, however, had a very productive couple weeks! It’s just mostly offline and draft work, so it’s not visible progress.

Writing-wise I’ve made great progress! I’ve got:

• 688 words typed of RiR chapter 16 (1.5 pages of the 11-page rough draft)

• Brainstorming for chapters 17 and 18 of RiR, so that when I get 16 up I can jump right into the last couple chapters.

•My Fugo-centric post-RiR work (Deep in the Dark) got a lot of attention last night and this morning, with most of the beginning outlined.

•15.5 of RiR, aka the sexy chapter (Body's Aching all the Time) is handwritten, but typing/editing is going to take awhile since I'm not quite happy with it & the honeybee doesn't want to beta-read smut, so I’m just going to be extra careful with a fine-tooth comb on that one.

•Post RiR giomis (Here Comes the Rain Again) has a rough summary of the first few chapters.

•A fairytale AU Sheila E/Trish work (A Girl in Trouble is a Temporary Thing) now has a very detailed outline & will likely be my next typed/posted work, since it’s a cut and dry one-off and wont spiral into chaos like the RiR universe has.

•My pre-canon Bruabba fic (Come Out and Play) has a chapter typed and three handwritten with a possible fifth in planning, and its follow up fic (No Light, No Light) has four chapters outlined, and for those I have a couple pages of OC stand/user planning done too. (It was supposed to be a one chapter smut and now it’s become a sprawling edgy feelings two-part fiasco, and I need to rework a lot of the timeline/planning for it I think. I retroactively decided to have it set in the RiR-verse and I need to edit it so it’s compliant)

•My fix-it post-canon everyone lives Bruabba AU (Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology) has gotten some love by running it by the honeybee and fleshing out parts of the rough outline.

•Fugio fantasy AU which doesn’t have a working title yet is also in the mix, while it was technically the second concept I came up with for Jojo’s fanfiction it’s been shelved for no particular reason.

And that's just my writing!

When it comes to my art I have a lot of ideas and goals:

•Mermaid Bucci gang series:

--> To go with Mer-Mista and Mer-Narancia, I did Mer-Bucciarati which I may redraw the head/face of since I don’t feel like it meets my quality standards.

--> I want to finish up the Sticky Fingers jellyfish to go with mer-bucci + the Sex Pistols fish + Aerosmith (i think I concept-ed that as a shark?)

--> I want to continue that series to include Abba, Trish, Fugo, and Giorno, plus their stands!

• I want to ink and color my PHD redesign, getting it out of my planning notebook and onto actual art paper.

• I want to draw Deep Sea & Fandango, I have reference images but I want to make true concept art since I’ve gotten a lot of feedback interested in Georgia.

• I want to draw Scaramouche & Margaritaville, for similar reasons to Fandango and Deep Sea, since I’ve pulled reference art already and I want to finalize their designs/ possibly make a stand-stats sheet.

• I want to draw my original stands from DitD, one of which (K.Y.E.) I have sketches in my notebook, plus pulling reference art/making a concept sheet for my COaP/NLNL stands. (I can’t really name any of these bc spoilers, but I’m really excited for K.Y.E. and it’s user, the honeybee really loves that one!)

If you’ve stuck through reading this so far, thank you! This is a fairly comprehensive summary of my fan-works right now, so hopefully all of these see the light of day sooner rather than later! I appreciate the support I’ve received thus far, and I look forward to sharing all this stuff with y’all in the future!

[hael-yes]

For the OC Ask meme! Taloi and questions 3, 7, 13, 15, 22!

I should have mentioned this in the tags but these characters are my DnD characters that me and my buddy @supermanopause also made a Modern AU for. Soo I will be answering for both worlds.

3: Does your OC behave differently around different people, if so with whom and how? Canon: No Taloi does not behave particularly different with anyone really. He is very quiet and reserved and when they do actually decide to speak to put their two cents in they are rather blunt and rude even. His new Grippli companion named Keko is starting to warm up to them but Taloi has never had someone he has really liked/trusted before so they still act more or less the same since that is the only way he knows how to be.Au: The only people he really acts different around are his adoptive parents and brother(Nico nickname “Keko”). He is more affectionate to/for them and tries to be the perfect son and brother even though he absolutely does not have to. They are the only people that believed he could amount to anything and never got angry or frustrated with his outburts. They saw something in him and nurtured that and cared for him like they were his own. His mother helped him a lot with his PTSD, BPD, anxiety and depression with her background of having gone to college to be a psychologist before deciding to be a stay at home mom. Although she does go back to finish her degree so she can better help her new son.

7: Does your OC have any phobias?Both: No not really. Taloi has a hard time with emotions in general because he represses a LOT and has faced a lot of horrors in his life in both worlds. The only things that used to scare him were adults and figures of authority but that was for an extremely good reason.

13: What kind of situations does your OC avoid the most?Both: Affection. They don’t really like being touched or hugged or anything like that.Canon: They also do not like being out in the open really and prefer to stick to back roads or alleys or rooftops. One of their items allows him to basically blink/dimension door to places several times a day so it makes it easier. This item is mostly used in combat, though, so they can blink behind enemies for sneak attacks/flanking purposes.Au: The only exception to this is his family again and even then they always ask him if it is ok if they do his whole life. 

15: Does your OC consider themselves a good person?Both: Absolutely notCanon: Taloi is actually Neutral Evil in dungeons and dragons. This is primarily because he is willing to kill, torture, steal, blackmail, etc anyone or anything to reach his final goal in life. He wants revenge upon his family for selling him into slavery to the Necromancers of Geb’s elite for cash and to try to avoid the prophecy about a child like him being born in their family.  Au: In the AU Taloi was born in the Philippines and at a young age also sold into the human trafficking market. He was rescued from that when they were about 8 and brought to the US and put in foster care and ran in to some really shitty situations there as well. Being constantly told they were worthless, a piece of shit, would amount to nothing, a “troubled child,” etc etc Taloi wholeheartedly believe that he is no good. Specially since they had to steal sometimes to have food when the family he was currently with was particularly shitty. Nico’s family helps him slowly pull out of this thinking but it isn’t until their mid 30′s that they actually stop thinking they are a bad person. Still wouldn’t consider himself good, though.

22: How does your OC usually show affection? Are they openly romantic or more restricted with their affectionate emotions?Both: Taloi is actually aromantic and romantic repulsed.Canon: They do not show affection at all really. There are ways to know that Taloi trusts you by like eating food you made for him or drinks you prepped/bought given to him. Typically these are things he does himself seeing as the line of work he is in it would not be a far-fetched idea for his food to be poisoned. They are very paranoid after decades of just.. surviving and working as an assassin so.. Letting someone do that for him is a big thing. At first they would just eat your food that you’ve already taken a bite of, though, before they ever would allow anyone to give them something.Au: A simple hug is their go-to way of showing affection for on the fly. If Taloi gets you a shitty prank gift, though, for a holiday or birthday then you really know that you are on his good side. When he was a kid and friends with Keko(they met when he came over and started going to school) they didn’t have money to give anyone gifts so it would be a shitty/stolen crappy gift and so that Taloi wouldn’t feel bad about having only that to give Keko started doing the same. It soon became a tradition and a game to try to one-up each other in shitty gifts so if Taloi involves you with this tradition then you are a true friend of theirs.

[ashfxrd]

Embrace the Evil - Nano ‘19 Day 2

In which I talk Drow OCs, why the Vox Machina Graphic Novel is life, and might have to come to terms with the fact that I am indeed no longer a pantser. (If you are interested in the making of a Critical Role Fanfiction you are more than welcome to jump over all the blog stuff and scroll straight to the next headline.)

Lo and behold! It is November, National Novel Writing Month. And instead of, you know, writing said novel I am dusting off this blog. Sounds like a bad idea, doesn’t it?

But since I am trying something new this November I thought it would be fitting to do something completely new. Like, you know, stick to my goals for one. And here I am, updating you all on the writing process. And most importantly, explaining why I am not working on an original project this month.

I spend the last three Nanos on original projects. I never finished said projects, at least not enough to send them off to my beta readers. And when this Nano approached I felt really truly sad about that fact. I love my books, I truly do, but one is a giant baby with 120 thousand words that need to be revised and mostly rewritten, the other is somewhere around the 70 thousand mark, and not better off at all. So I was hit with doubt even before Nano started. Why write another 50+ word monster when I still have so much work to do on the other two?

Now this year was rather rough for me, due to personal problems and health issues within my immediate family. I set out with great creative goals and ended up not being able to reach any of them. I simply had no time for writing. And believe me, I was so ready for Nano. I was ready to delve headfirst back into the maze that my mind sometimes turns into, I was ready to experience a new story, a new adventure.

But I was not ready to write something serious. I was not ready to write something with the thought of publishing it one day, I was not ready to write something that needed to be good. But that is not the point of Nano anyway, is it?

So I had a long talk with my wonderful CP, thought about it quite thoroughly, and then finally decided I would start something new. Instead of starting a new original project - I had no time for outlining and world-building anyway, let alone inspiration - I was going to write a fanfiction. A real and true fanfiction.

Set in Tal’Dorei.

And why? Because I spend almost all of October prepping a DnD campaign for my friends and whenever I read something about Mercer’s world I thought to myself “Oh my gosh! This would make such an amazing setting for one of my stories!” I created NPCs that seemed so interesting to me that I wanted to spend even more time with them (A half-elf Drow, princess of thieves for example), but all of it was too cheesy, too high-fantasy, too standard, to fit into any of my original work. Lately, whenever I am working on my fantasy novel I am hit with that doubt, that little voice that tells me this has been done before. And during Nano I did not want to have to listen to this voice. I wanted to have fun, to remind myself of why I love writing, why I love creating in the first place. And maybe even end up creating something I could share with such an amazing and talented fandom.

So I told myself, I will use Mercer’s amazing world, my cheesy RPG NPCs, and write a nice little story with that.

Three days before Nano the panic set in. So I tried to outline, at least a little, only a few scenes... Something! I needed a starting point. I used to be a full pantser, going into a story with no outline and having no idea what to do. And I used to pants approximately 15 - 30 thousand words before hitting the first real obstacle. But I always ended up having to revise too much. So I trained myself to rely more on outlines. But this Nano would be different, this Nano would be fun. This Nano would be nothing but High Fantasy galore, pantsing, jumping around, ADVENTURE!

Now, you see, there is a reason I am DM, not player. I HATE PANTSING.

Gosh, I cannot believe I just said that. I was always a pantser at heart. But I am sitting here, wading through the murky waters of a new story, and I do not know where I want to go with these characters. I have no idea who they are! I have no idea what they want! I have no idea why I should even write the story if there is no ending insight!

Do not get me wrong, I am doing great so far. I am writing my words and hitting my goals. But it is only day 2 and there are still a lot of words to write. Maybe, I thought to myself, I do need at least a little more planning.

The first thing I did, as always, was spending more time on my characters. Which gets us to the first real topic of this tiny little series (except for my pantser-crisis):

DROW.

Now if you are familiar with Dungeons&Dragons, The Forgotten Realms, or similar fantasy concepts you may have heard of the Drow. Well, you will definitely have heard of them, let’s be real here. The Drow, the dark elves of the Underdark, are a deprived and terrible society of evil creatures, lurking in the night and taking away innocent souls to serve them as slaves in their bloody cities. They bow only to Loth, the Spider Goddess.

And I love them.

Honestly. I love a good villain, and the Drow are nothing but pure evil villains. I blame my cousins for this love for Drow because they did not only introduce me to DnD when I was like twelve years old but have been talking about and adoring Drizzt do’Urden for as long as I can remember. I should admit, right here and right now, that I never read a book by Salvatore, I only got into DnD a few months ago, and I watched like one full episode of Critical Role. I would not be me though if I did not delve headfirst into this obsession.

Drizzt do’Urden is the exception when it comes to Drow. He is not a villain, he is a hero. He battles the villains and he is an outcast, an elf whose kin turned on him because of that fact. It is exactly the kind of story that is gripping and interesting, the kind of hero you wish to follow until the end. But I wanted my Drow to be different. She was brought up in the Underdark for the first five years of her life before her human father saved her from that dreadful place. He brought her to his home and raised her. There was the possibility of her turning out not evil because of the good upbringing, but I decided to make him a Spireling of the Clasp. Because I cannot have nice things. I wanted this story to be about to half-elves, one Drow and one not, struggling with who they really are, where their place is in this world. I wanted to explore the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. I wanted my nice Drow OC to stumble into the Underdark, to see what her people are capable of and end up questioning if she herself is capable of such dark things. I wanted her to fear her true nature, to battle it. I wanted her to stand victorious as many times as she will be defeated.

I wanted to tell a tale in which there is neither good nor evil, but only a lot of grey.

But it turns out writing Villains as the heroes of a story is not that easy. Where one character is troubled to see her father’s true nature when he is both, Spiraling of the Clasp and caring parent, I struggle to write such a complex person without it all becoming way too cheesy.

So my initial plan of pantsing my way through this fanfiction and exploring it all as I went along failed on Day 2. Yay me.

But fear not! I dove into research, refreshed my lore, and read about the best ways of playing a Drow in a DnD campaign. (Let me get one thing straight, playing a believable character in DnD, or DMing a good campaign consist of the same things as writing a good character/ story). There was one article that dealt with the “Embracing the Evil” part of playing a Drow. The author of said article made a point in saying that there are way too many good Drow OCs out there and that evil does not always equal evil.  And I am now sitting here, wondering about nurture vs nature myself, wondering about how evil I can make my characters and still have the readers care for them, still have them 3d.

Because let us be real, there is no reason to read something if you do not care about the characters in it. There is no reason for writing something if you do not care about the characters in it.

It is back to the drawing board for me, peppering my story with some really evil characters - Drow and not Drow - before I can find an answer to those questions that satisfies me enough.

Vox Machina and Stilben.

Which gets me to the next important part of my story: Setting.

Early September my Mom got me the Tal’Dorei campaign guide for my birthday. Because a) I love world-building more than anything, b) I needed a setting for our growing DnD campaign and c) I adore getting lost in Fantasy Worlds. After I decided that my Nano project would take place in that world I started to flip through the book, searching for a place that could fit my story. I knew I did not want to start in one of the major cities and I knew I needed a port. I also knew that the struggle between Clasp and Myriad would be a thing in the story.

It did not take long for me to find Stilben. A stinking coastal town at the edge of the K’Tawl swamp. It just sounded perfect! And it had the Clasp struggling against the Myriad, it had amazing adventures around it, great world-building, and a direct route to the main city! I adored the region and could not wait to throw my characters into it. There was a small paragraph in the Campaign Guide saying that Vox Machina had one of their first adventures within the K’Tawl Swamp, but since I hadn’t really watched the series yet I thought it to be only a tiny bit of background knowledge.

I spend a few days reading about the place, the religions there, the monsters, and so forth. On Friday - yesterday - I got up even earlier than usual to get some writing time in and start Nanowrimo off right. I wrote the first scene, in which members of the Claps break and enter into a ship from Wildemount to steal from the Myriad. I wanted to have this flashback of them meeting one of my MCs five years prior to the events of the story. The idea was to have my two side characters interfere with the Myriads business, working for the Clasp, and five years my MCs do the same, but now the conflict has only grown and their interference leads to an escalation.

It needed to take place on a ship because the Myriad was about to smuggle my MC out of the country. That was like the only thing I knew about this scene (or the general backstory of said MC) before I sat down to write it. But once I started to write the words just kept flowing and all fell into place. It was truly a magical start to this year’s Nano. Later that day I was able to leave work a lot earlier than expected, but I missed the train and had a few minutes of time to kill in the city. An interesting twist of fate, looking back to it now. I went to the local comics and book shop, thinking I could maybe get something for our DnD campaign. But on the way there I remembered that there is actually a Vox Machina Origins Graphic Novel out there and that I could see and read more about Tal’Dorei! So to celebrate the beginning of Nano, a month I had waited for almost all year, I decided to see if fate would allow me to buy that book. I looked it up on Goodreads to know the exact name and read the Synopsis.

(...) following six would-be heroes as they uncover a plot to destroy the small coastal town of Stilben.

I stopped in my tracks. Could I write a story that takes place in Stilben without it feeling too much like a rip-off? Without copying too much of Mercer’s work?

But I reminded myself that I was already taking a lot of Mercer’s work into my own story. The entire world-building for once! And it was supposed to be a fanfiction after all, there was nothing wrong in using the same setting as the original. Even better, since we are talking a graphic novel buying it would enable me to see Stilben instead of simply reading about it. And how many times can you say that you are really seeing the world of your story in front of you? Brought to life by someone else?

I remembered that Liam O’Brien, cast member of Critical Role, said something during their fall update video along the lines of wanting to tell stories and inspiring others to do the same. And as I walked to the Comic Store I was more than just inspired. I was totally hyped. Only to find out though, that our small Comic Store no longer sold English Graphic Novels and Comics. The internet destroyed that market for them. Perchance they could order it for me though? I thought about going home and ordering it online myself, which would mean I’d get it a lot earlier than ordering through the store. But I was there to support local booksellers and so I said, yes please, order it for me. Too bad the guy couldn’t find it online either! I got really frustrated when suddenly the cover art loaded on his computer and he went all “Oh, is this that Critical Role stuff?” YES. YES, IT IS. He told me they might still have some German issues... and wait, what? There is a German issue? I hadn’t known. He told me it hadn’t been released that long ago and I think he found it kind of funny how happy I was, clutching my new book and almost running out of his shop to read.

Fate indeed.

On my train ride home I read the first few pages and dearly enjoyed it. But even better, the book has a city map of Stilben in the back! I could choose a street, even a house in which my MCs could grow up in. I knew how their backyard was looking like, I knew how the other people in their city were looking like, and acting. This graphic novel was a gold mine of inspiration. And it got better with every page I turned.

Me, meeting a real Spireling of the Clasp? Check. The book taking place early on when the struggle between the Clasp and the Myriad is slowly beginning? Check. The Myriad having their secret lair inside a ship and working from there? DOUBLE CHECK.

It all felt so right. Part of the story I wanted to write had already been written and my little idea just fit perfectly into the picture, like a piece of the puzzle. I wondered if people would read it, maybe like or even adore it, I wondered if my little story idea could really become a part of this wonderful and amazingly thought-through world, even if it was just inside my own head. And instead of discouraging me, the idea inspired me. Because, and yes I am going to be cheesy and quoting the theme in just a few seconds, how am I to find out if the story truly has the potential to become part of the puzzle if not through writing it? It is time to take a chance and roll the dice, it seems.

Reading this graphic novel during the last two days has been an absolute joy. The art is amazing, I adore how so much of the story is told through the facial expressions and there is always something going on in the background. It was amazing to see these characters brought to life in such a different way. I can only recommend it!

But the one thing it truly did was inspire me to tell this story even more. It just feels more right than before to use Stilben as a setting, to start from that point and see where the adventure will take me. Maybe, someday, I will take you all along for the ride! Fret not, I am pretty sure this is the only Nanowrimo Update post that will be this long.

Until then, Happy Writing my lovely Cupcakes! As always feel free to leave any questions or critic! ♥

Marie